WEBVTT - Syphilis: The Great Imitator 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:13.280 Works dot com. Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:15.880 your mind. My name is Robert lamp and Julie Douglas, 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:17.320 and I'd like you to take a moment to just 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:22.840 try and create. Try and imagine the most destructive disease possible. 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:27.480 Imagine a disease that ravages the body. That ravage is 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:30.560 just about every tissue, every every part of the human 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.640 form that it takes down. The sex organs that that 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.000 takes apart the face, takes apart your identity, and in 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.040 some cases ultimately robbed you of your mind as well 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:44.720 before killing you outright. Yeah, you mentioned sex organs. So 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.879 also imagine that there's a moral to mention to this 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.480 disease that would give you the sort of outward appearance 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:56.560 that perhaps you had been engaging in conduct unbecoming to you. Yes, 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:58.800 And of course, in all of this, we're talking about 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.480 a very real ill this and that is syphilis. We're 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.360 actually going to devote two whole episodes to syphilis here. 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.920 This first episode, Syphilis the Great Imitator, is mainly going 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:13.240 to focus on the organism that causes syphilis and how 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:17.200 syphilis manifests itself in the human body. In the second episode, 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.080 we are going to get into the cultural and historical 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:23.880 impact of syphilis, because that that in its own right 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.360 is an enormous topic of interest, because for four and 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:32.920 a half centuries, syphilis ravages the Old World, ravages Western culture, 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:37.600 and it's it's really kind of difficult to overstate the 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:42.200 the role that syphilis played in coloring Western civilization during 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:44.720 that time. Yes, don't run away, because this is alf 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:47.800 really interesting that the bacterium itself is fascinating, and then 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:51.440 of course the cultural implications. Now we have our first 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:57.080 recorded epidemic of venereal syphilis occurring in Europe, and by 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:00.200 the close of the fifteenth century you have chaos just 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:05.240 raining in Naples, Italy, where there's a huge outbreak. In fact, uh, 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:09.920 Pope Innocent the eighth asked French King Charles the Eighth 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:12.200 to invade the city with troops to try to keep 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.600 it under control. But what do you think happens? Well, 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.160 as we would as we it would eventually learned, Sending 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.040 troops then to deal with syphilis not the best strategy 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.240 because because that they're going to end up catching the syphilis. 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:26.000 And then when you draw the troops out, they're going 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.920 to take the syphilis elsewhere exactly. And the problem here 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.280 is that syphlis has being known as the great imitator 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.800 because it has all these different symptoms that at the 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:41.639 outset might be mistaken for other illnesses. So imagine this 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:43.800 time period in which this was happening and people not 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.320 quite knowing what they were dealing with. Yeah, to quote 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:49.880 Sir William Afler, he says, no syphilis in all its 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:52.960 manifestations and relations and all other things clinical will be 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.160 added to you. There is no organ in the body, 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.520 nor any tissue in the organs, which syphilis does not invade. 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:02.480 And it is therefore manifestly difficult to speak, at least 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.639 at all concisely of the pathology of the disease, just 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.680 as as it is almost impossible to describe its clinical 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:12.840 symptoms without mentioning almost every symptom of every known disease. 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:15.280 And these symptoms are not going to be the same 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.520 from one person to the next. So you have a 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.119 disease that is that is seemingly very stealthy, very nefarious. 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.560 It's uh, it's it's changing its shape, it's changing its strategy, 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.720 it's going dormant it's popping back up and uh and 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.320 the whole time everyone's trying to understand what's going on, 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:33.240 how to prevent it. Uh. Again, there there's there's this 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:36.440 this whole seemingly moral side to it because it's spread 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:40.560 through sexual contact, and it ends up spreading across every 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.360 social level in society. Uh. It's it's a disease that 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:48.200 ravages the poor, it ravages the rich. It's hitting the royalty, 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:51.400 it's hitting the clergy, it's hitting anyone who's engaging in 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.920 sexual contact, which is everyone, right, And in fact, it 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.680 is so prevalent that you get a couple of references 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:01.360 to it in Shakespeare's works like pox of your houses 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:03.760 and Romeo a nguliet, which is now a curse like 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.640 a pox on you. It's but the problem with this is 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:09.400 is that we tend to think of it as this 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:14.880 antiquated illness, right, it is not. In fact, The Centers 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:19.320 for Disease Control estimate that annually more than fifty five 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:24.159 people in the US get new syphilis infections, and during 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.680 two thousand and twelve there were more than forty nine 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:31.719 thousand reported new cases of syphilis, compared to forty thousand 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:36.839 estimated new diagnosis of HIV. So it is still present 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.400 and it is most common in people between the ages 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.040 of twenty and twenty nine years of age, which has 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.960 led it to be called Cupid's disease by the way. Yeah, 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.400 and of course, one other way we should mention that 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.720 you can transfer syphilis is through an unborn child, and 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.159 so congenital syphilis, which will we'll talk about a little 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.320 bit more later. That's also a huge problem because when 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:04.640 the syphilis manifests in a newborn child, uh, the the 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.839 the effects are kind it can be pretty disastrous. So 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:10.320 once against syphilis, even though it is a tremendous interest 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:14.880 from a historical standpoint, it is not a purely historical disease. 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.760 Now we just don't put as much emphasis on it 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:23.520 these days in terms of infectious diseases because it can 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.280 be controlled by penicillin, and we'll talk about that later. Yes, yes, 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.280 they can be wiped out by penicillin and uh uh. 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:32.040 And and that has been a huge advantage in the 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.760 war against cephalis for sure, But still it is it 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.039 is an adversary that that carries on even in the 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:40.839 advent of what would seem a magic bullet. Yeah, and 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:46.680 let's talk about this dastardly organism also known as Treponema palladum. Yes, 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:50.480 such Treponema palladum, which is a treponemal disease. There are 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:54.000 other treponemal diseases which will get into these and co 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:58.000 include a visual penta and yaws. None of these, of 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:02.000 course are sexually transmitted, but they are essentially skin ailments 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.520 that are that are transferred by skin to skin contact. Yes, 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.880 so they are related to Treponema palladum, but they themselves, 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:13.599 as you say, are not spread through sexual contact. And 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:15.760 I should add to to be clear if you want 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:20.800 to get really particular. Syphilis is caused by a subspecies 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:25.280 of Treponema palladum, essentially Treponema paladum palatum. But for all 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:30.040 intents and references going forward, Treponema palladum ke palatum syphilis. 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.159 You'll know what we're talking about. Yeah, Now, this is 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.800 a spial shaped bacterium also known as a sparrow keet 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:40.640 and that we're talking about slender, spirally undulating bacteria here 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:45.760 and again. It is most often spread by sexual contact, 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:50.560 and the disease occurs in three primary stages. We'll talk 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:55.000 more about that. And uh, now, these these later stages 0:06:55.279 --> 0:07:00.960 that will discuss are not so common in our modern era, right, yeah, 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.960 because the later stages obviously deal with a case of 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.400 syphilis that has not been treated, not been cured with 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:10.080 the penicillin. All right, Well, let's let's start with transmission. 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.920 And I'd like to sort of encourage you to think 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.680 throughout this with an invasion. Sorry, all right, well, let's 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:20.080 let's talk about how syphilis is transmitted. And I'd like 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:24.320 you to think about this, uh in terms of an invasion, 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.680 because that's what it is. And we're dealing with an 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:29.960 invasion of these spiral keets into the human body. And 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.120 this invasion takes place in a few different phases. So 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.680 syphilis can be spread again by through the through the birthless, 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:41.320 sent by kissing, close contact, um, transfusion of fresh human blood. 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:43.560 But the main ways that it's that it's spreading us 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:47.520 through sexual contact. We're talking vaginal sex, oral sex, anal 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.080 sex um. All of these will serve as as a 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:54.239 as an entry point. Now, the way that the spiro 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.560 keets into the body they enter through the skin, and 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.440 when intimate contact of this nature is made that is 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.720 when when the spire key enters the body, enters through 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.800 the skin and there it will hang out until it 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.520 makes itself known in the form of a syphilitic sore, 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:14.440 also known as a shanker. And shankers occur mainly on 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:18.640 external genitals that jina anus or in the rectum. They 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:21.280 can also occur on the lips and in the mouth. 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.040 So this is when you see most of the transmission 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.280 occur among people when these sores are present. Right, this 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:32.160 is primary syphilis. This is first stage syphilis. And think 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.320 of this in terms of the enemy initially getting into 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.680 the fortress. This is the shanker is literally the entry 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:42.439 point for the for the spiro keets. And it may 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:44.079 be a small number of spire keets and maybe a 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.160 larger number of spire keets, but this is where they're 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:48.880 getting in. This is the whole in the fortress wall. Yeah. 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.160 And these shankers can appear usually around twenty one days 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.720 after infection, but sometimes as little as ten or even 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.640 ninety days. Yeah, and it may hang around for three 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.480 to six weeks. And here's the thing. They can if 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.280 you look up pictures online and sure, you should definitely 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:07.839 go into a Google image search for for what these 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:11.800 look like? Your loins, your your loins, but they may 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:15.559 look pretty intense at times, but these are painless, uh, 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.360 And they're easily confused with any number of small skin 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:23.080 ailments that may pop up in even a healthy person's life, 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:26.480 you know, the stuff like ingrown hairs or or you know, 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.600 or various other bumps. So then would be caused by 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:32.880 by any number of other ailments. Again, it's a great 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.600 imitator right now. If you do not get treated at 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:40.319 this point, well then it gets into secondary syphilis. And 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.400 during this stage that's when you see those skin rashes, 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.560 swords in your mouth. And so that's the primary stage 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:48.840 and the and it's key to note here that the 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:53.280 shanker disappears advantishes. So if you were concerned about it, 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:55.360 if you really, I wonder what this painless, you know, 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.600 ugly spot on my genitals is, well, then it goes away. 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:00.920 And that's one of the day dangers that we see 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.080 over and over again with syphilis is that the the 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.760 infection seems to go away, the illness may seem to 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:10.040 go away, but as we're about to learn, it does not. 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:14.320 And again, imagine yourself in you know, the fifteenth century. 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:16.640 If you have this and then that disappears and think, oh, 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.640 everything is fine. I got upset over and over nothing, 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:24.000 and maybe you didn't even notice. It's it's entirely likely 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.839 that one wouldn't even notice that the shanker had popped up. Now, 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:30.480 most likely you wouldn't have been treated at that point 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:32.960 in time because there wasn't anything necessarily to treat you 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.360 with that was really effective. So it would then develop 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:41.079 into a secondary stage called secondary syphilis, in which you 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.199 would have skin rashes and or source in your mouth 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:48.440 vagina and anus, often called mucus membrane lesions. Yeah, and 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:52.600 you may also see other varying symptoms such as fever, lethargy, headaches, 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:57.600 general body aches, hair loss. And this is the point 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.360 of the invasion in which the enemy, the me made 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:03.520 it in in the primary stage and in secondary syphilis, 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:06.560 the enemy has spread throughout the castle, all right, and 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:10.440 and is making itself known throughout the invaded city, that 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.360 is the human body, right, And you are highly contagious 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:15.680 at this point. In fact, gentle, those sours caused by 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.400 syphilis make it a lot easier to transmit and acquire 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.360 things like HIV infection. Right, so you can get a 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.360 secondary infection at this point. In fact, there is an 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:28.840 estimated two to fivefold increased risk of acquiring HIV if 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:32.079 you're exposed to infection when syphilis is present in these 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:36.320 first and second stages. Now, at this point, after secondary syphilis, 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.240 and here again we see that the secondary syphilis, this 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.960 outbreak cut period, this goes away as well, which again 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.160 could lead someone to say, well, that was horrible, and 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:47.559 maybe they may not even realize that it was connected 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.120 to the primaries outbreak, And they might, but they can 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.400 easily imagine, well, I'm done with this now, it's it's 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.520 it's it's done. It's finished. Whatever illness was affecting me, 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.120 the pox has left me, right, Yeah, But little do 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.560 they know that this is just the latent stage of 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.559 this and it's just waiting around. It might not even 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.480 reveal itself for decades. Yeah. So imagine the enemy has 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:10.800 invaded the castle, They've made a lot of mischief, and 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:12.960 then suddenly they seem to be gone, But they're not gone. 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.000 There in the basement. They're in the basement, they're in 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:18.040 there in every house in the city. There. They've literally 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.200 become a part of the city. They're essentially a sleeper cell. Uh, 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:26.200 and that is what latent syphilis is. Tertiary syphilis, the 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.600 stage really is quite gruesome because it kind of takes 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:32.400 everything in the body down to the studs are more so, 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.880 I should say, it's like you say, the sleeper cells 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.640 in the basements. They become stronger and they come roaring 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.959 back into the body and they cause a lot of havoc. Yeah, 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.280 it's I mean, we see this over and over again 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.920 with with syphilis, but it has such metaphorical power. Is 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.760 one of the reasons that I think we're aside from 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.040 its uh, its power to harm and his figuous uh, 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.160 the reason we're drawn to it so is you do 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.880 see this idea of the the infection. It flared up, 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:04.160 and it flared up again, and then it comes back 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:09.040 in only fift The case is a much stronger form 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:13.360 in the tertiary stage, far more debilitating, far more destructive 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:17.960 and ultimately lethal stage of the illness. Yeah. In this 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.960 late stage you could have sometimes that include difficulty coordinating 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.240 your muscle movements, paralysis, not being able to move some 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:29.640 of your body, uh, numbness, blindness, and dementia. And then 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:33.600 in the late late stages, the disease begins to ravage 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:37.360 your internal organs, and that is what can result in death. 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:39.760 And this is one of the remarkable things about this 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:43.079 is that this stage can occur ten to twenty years 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:47.959 after primary syphilis. So this is it's again the metaphoralthorical 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.400 power of this. It's like the the sins of the 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:55.040 young individual coming back to destroy the older individual. You know. 0:13:55.640 --> 0:14:00.400 It's um, it's it's gruesome stuff, and and and and 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.320 against that one may not even remember that first outbreak 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.679 all that clearly, and suddenly all these changes are happening 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.320 to their body and ultimately to their mind. Yeah, and 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.719 we have largely up until this point treated this in 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.480 a very clinical fashion and not really talked about the 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.000 sights and the sounds and the spells of what this 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:20.840 looks like, which you will do more in the next podcast. 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.760 But just know that at this point, um, this this 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.440 this is really adding injury to insult because you might 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.560 have lost your nose, you know, and recovered from that, 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.040 and and all of a sudden you think you're out 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:37.600 in the clear, and boom it comes back in in 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.200 such a corrosive manner that you find out that this 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.200 is really the death knell. Yeah, corrosive is an excellent 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:47.200 term to use, because you see the you see a 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.520 loss of teeth, you see the destruction of the palette 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.520 in the mouth. You see you see the the the 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.880 collapse of the nose into what is known as saddle nose, 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.880 where basically the nose collapses and around the bridge and 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.200 becomes kind of upturned and smaller looking uh, and then 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:07.440 may eventually um appear to rot entirely. Uh. Saddle nose 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:09.840 is also caused can also be caused by just damage 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.800 to the nose. You see boxers that suffer from saddle nose. 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:18.920 Also extreme cocaine addiction can somehow sometimes have that effect 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.640 on individuals. But Yeah, you're seeing it attack your facial features. 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:26.840 You're seeing it attack uh, your genitals in a very 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:31.200 destructive manner, and then also getting into your organs. Again. 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.200 To back to the quote that I read at the 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.280 beginning of the podcast by uh Dr William Ostler, it 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:41.360 it the spiral keets of syphilis attack every part of 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:43.280 the body like nothing is off limits. To go back 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:47.000 to that castle analogy from from earlier, the invader has 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:49.480 lived in the city for ten to twenty years and 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.680 now in potentially every household in the city has decided 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.840 to just burn everything to the ground. Right now. The 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.520 other part of this is that simple is as we 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.320 have mentioned before, can be transmitted through the placenta. So 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.720 what does this mean. It means that during that time 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.760 period from the fifteenth century to the twentieth century, there 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.280 are a lot of children born with syphilis also called 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.640 congenital syphilis. And even to this day, corner of the 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:20.200 World Health Organization, you have a million children born annually 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:24.640 with congenital syphilis. Yeah, and it's very serious stuff because 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:27.920 nearly half of all children infected with syphilis, whether in 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:31.920 the womb, guy shortly before or after birth, and sometimes 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:35.600 this can also result in still borns um And despite 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:37.960 the fact that syphilis can be cure with antbiotics if 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.520 caught early, there are arising rates among pregnant women in 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.320 the United States, and that of course has increased the 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.200 number of infants born with this. Now, some of the 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:51.840 complications include blindness, deafness, deformity of the face, and nervous 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.120 system problems. Now, why does syphilis hang out in the 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:57.720 body so long, you might be wondering, Well, Uh, it's 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:01.360 it maybe due in part to palladum having a slow 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.560 dividing time of thirty to thirty three hours, and it's 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.919 likely that P. Pallatum undergoes an even slower rate of 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:12.320 division during the latent stages of the disease. So it's 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:17.000 a it's it's a long living creature from a bacterial standpoint, Yes, 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:22.080 it's like a bacterial croc pot Yeah. Alright, um, let's 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.000 talk about the current state of treatment and infections. Oh 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.239 but I say current, I have to mention that there 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:30.760 are a couple of old timey ways in which they 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.360 were thought to be cures for it, one of which 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:40.359 is mercury. Yes, inhaling mercury vapor. In fact, there is 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:43.440 This was so common for hundreds of years that a 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:45.960 little phrase came out of that, A night with venus, 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:50.200 a lifetime with mercury. Yeah. So you would find yourself 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.480 going regularly for essentially skin treatments, taking these these mercury 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:58.960 steam bats, and and enduring the harmful effects of that 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.679 of that mercury relation on top of the ravages of syphilis. 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.000 It did kill the sparrow key, but yes, it also 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.240 poisoned the patient. Yeah. Well, there are a few different 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.879 factors involved. There because on one hand, uh, their you know, 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.000 their arguments to what effect the mercury had in killing 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.399 the sparrow keets, But then the sparrow keets are so 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.840 entrenched in the body. What can you do. Also, again, 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.879 think about that that primary and secondary stage, the flare 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:28.600 ups and the disappearance. You have individuals that could go 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.240 into it to be treated for for their symptoms of syphilis, 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.120 and lo and behold, the symptoms vanish with the treatment, 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.760 not because of the treatment, just because of the timing 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.840 of the treatment. And ultimately, again you're dealing with four 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:42.879 and a half centuries in which there is no cure 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.159 for this illness. So if someone's trying to sell you 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:48.160 an illness, you're going to try and buy it. That's 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.760 just how it goes. And you know, this disease is 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.760 ravaging my body. If you tell me that mercury might help, 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.480 then I'm probably going to try mercury. Sure, You're gonna 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:00.000 try anything at that point, including malaria, which is apparently 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.920 something that was discovered in nineteen seventeen by Julius Wagner 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:09.679 Jarig to help halt some of the symptoms of syphilis, 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:14.440 particularly neurosyphilis that advanced stage in which you get psychosis 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.520 and you get paralysis. And they found that if you 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:23.280 induced a malarial fever in patients, well, that could help 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.919 with the actual infection. You also saw the use of 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.840 so called ciphilization treatments. This was where you would essentially 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:34.480 try to inoculate the patient in the same way that 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:40.280 you would treat them for smallpox. Um, this didn't work, uh, 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:43.520 But submitting yourself to the disease right right, Yeah, trying 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:48.000 to to build up you know, bodily immunity doesn't work. Now, 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:50.920 I've I've read some mixed reports of how experiments on 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:56.439 rabbits uh in the modern age have potentially shown some 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.119 possibility there. But you get into a situation where it 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:04.840 would take so many applications of syphilis and and we're 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.040 talking about a rabbit and it hasn't been studied enough 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.240 and you would certainly could not study it in humans. 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.200 So so yeah, and then also want to study it 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:14.640 when we have penicillin that can wipe it out. And 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.120 sometimes it's diagnosed by testing fluid from a syphilis sore 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.560 and looking for the sparrow keet via dark field microscopy. 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:24.359 The name of that blood test by the way, is 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.080 the Wasserman blood test uh and it was developed in 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.879 nineteen o six just to get everything in the timeline 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:33.600 squared away there. So, as we had mentioned, symphilis can 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.080 be treated with antibotics, So we're talking about penicillin. We're 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:40.800 talking about G benzotine, doxycycline, or tetracycline, and that's for 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:44.240 patients who are usually allergic to penicillin. In the length 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.600 of treatment depends on the extent of the infection and 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:51.040 factors such as the person's overall health. So let's say 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.320 you didn't get to it right away and you kind 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.959 of get to the second or have a secondary phase 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.480 of it, you would still have to deal with any 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.719 sort of ill effects that you might have sustained at 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:05.880 that point. All right, So at this point you might 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:10.760 be wondering, what can I do two decrease my chances 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:15.320 of catching syphilis. Well, according to the CDC, they're basically 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:17.840 two things you can do because there's no there's no 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.359 vaccine for syphilis. We have a cure for syphilis. But 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:23.160 then again you get into the problem of detecting it, 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:27.120 knowing to report it, etcetera um. And then even once 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:31.080 you've treated syphilis. There's no undoing any damage that it's done. Um, 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.160 So number one, be a part of a long term, 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.160 mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:39.680 and it has negative STD test results. And number two 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.240 use latex condoms the right way every time you have sex. 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:47.359 Condoms prevent transmission of syphilis by preventing contact with a sore. 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:50.639 Sometimes sores occurring areas not covered by a condom. However, 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:54.200 in contact with these sores can still transmit syphilis because 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:58.040 again it's about it. It's it come goes through the skin. 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:03.639 It's not something that travels through the orifice. Now this 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:06.679 might surprise you, but the people who really need to 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:13.000 hear this most besides year olds, are senior citizens. Yes, 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:15.719 and this surprised me. This was some some some interesting 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:19.080 material that you discovered. Yeah, we actually a while ago 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:20.760 we had someone from the CDC come and talk to 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:23.879 us about STDs. Not because our our group needed a 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:27.480 talking to because the outbreak at work right now, but 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:29.720 because every once in a while someone will come and 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.480 and sort of give us information and and um, it's 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:37.200 always very interesting. And he had mentioned then that retirement communities, 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:42.879 assisted living facilities these are all hotbeds for STDs, and 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:46.879 this is in part because they are not practicing safe sex. 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:51.480 And also you have to keep in mind that that 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:55.800 for a long time, perhaps many of of the community 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.720 members were in long term relationships, but now they probably 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:05.040 have lost a partner. And it's a very social community. 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:08.080 There's a lot of sex going on within your citizens 0:23:08.200 --> 0:23:12.000 in these communities, and numbers from the Centers for Disease 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:16.160 Control and Prevention show a rapid increase among older people. 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:18.879